10 Tips on Writing IELTS LettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

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IELTS letters 10 top tips

How should you write a letter in general training IELTS? Here are some tips to help you

maximise your band score so that your IELTS letters impress the examiner. A summary of

these tips would be that letter writing may have its own conventions but so does IELTS so

whatever else you do, make sure you answer the question and use good English.

1. Make sure you answer the whole question

This is probably the most common mistake. Each IELTS letter question contains 3 bullet

points and you need to make sure that you address all 3 points in your answer. If you leave

one of them out, you will be penalised on task response. A more detailed point is that you

need to make sure that you include the appropriate amount of detail for each point this

may mean you need to write more about one topic and less about another.

If you like, go and visit my sample IELTS letter questions page and make sure you can

identify the tasks in each letter.

2. Think about who you are writing to

Perhaps the one complex thing about letter writing is that you need to be aware of register.

This means that you need to be able to write in a more formal style if the letter is to

someone you dont know and in a less formal style to a friend. Part of the problem here is

that conventions differ in different countries and cultures. One sensible piece of advice is to

aim for a relatively neutral style and dont try to be too formal or too informal.

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/

1 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

3. Think about the purpose(s) of the letter

Before you start writing, you should think about what the purpose of the letter is. IELTS

letters tend to be quite predictable and generally fall into one or more of these functions:

complaint

request

explanation

apology

application

suggestion

This information helps you because you can then use the appropriate letter writing

vocabulary for each of those functions.

4. Dont forget to use varied grammar

A common problem with letters is that candidates use language that is too simple. Just as

in essays, there is a band score for grammatical range and accuracy. This means that even if

you are writing to a friend, you still need to use varied sentences. You cannot just use short

and simple sentences.

5. Learn how to start a letter

When we write more formal letters, we tend to start with a sentence explaining exactly why

we are writing. A common phrase here is I am writing to.. We start like that because the

person doesnt know us and needs to understand what the purpose of the letter is.

When we write to a friend, we normally start by talking a little about our relationship in a

fairly general paragraph. A common phrase might be, I was so pleased to hear from you

again. Its been ages since weve seen one another. Its important not to forget to do this

in IELTS letters as it shows the examiner you understand the type of letter you are writing.

6. Learn how to end a letter

There are also conventional ways to end letters. If you are unsure how to do this, the best

advice is to think about what you expect to happen next. In a more formal letter where you

have asked for some information, you might write:

By contrast, in a letter to a friend who is coming to visit you, you might try:

I look forward to hearing from you soon.


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You can learn some set phrases to help you do this but as I say the best advice is just to

think about what you expect to happen next.

7. Plan your letter

What? Plan a letter? Well you may not bother in life, but IELTS is a very peculiar form of life

and you should definitely spend time thinking about and organising your letter. This means

that you should think carefully about:

how many paragraphs you are going to use

what the main points to include are

what details you need to add

what vocabulary you need

8. Make sure you write at least 150 words

This should be self-explanatory. You will be penalised if you write less than 150 words and

my general advice is that you should aim for about 175 words. I say this because the

examiner may not count any words you have directly copied form the question.

9. Check your spelling and punctuation

Perhaps because letters are often less formal than essays, candidates frequently make more

basic spelling and punctuation mistakes in letters. Dont be one of those people: even if it

is an informal letter make sure you use correct English. This means:

you may use short forms like cant if its an informal letter

you shouldnt use abbreviations like cos

be very careful with spelling of common words like believe and sincerely

write in sentences with full stops and capital letters

10. Practise using standard letter writing phrases

Letters have their own language to some extent. One way to improve your letter writing is to

look at sample IELTS letters and find phrases which you can use in your own letters.

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I cant wait to see you. And dont forget to give my love to all your family.


3 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

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22 Responses to IELTS letters 10 top tips

Kasthuri June 10, 2011 at 12:50 pm #

This too was really helpful. Thank you very much. You are the BEST Sir !

Thanks Dominic for leaving us with this information for easyaccess to tackle ielts papars. October 24, 2011 at 12:09 pm #

Dcielts.com

CINDY November 13, 2011 at 9:10 pm #

SIR,PLEASE WHAT IS THE TRICK IN GENERAL TRAINING READING AND WRITING? INEED A 6.5 BUT GOT 6 IN BOTH.INTERESTINGLY I DID ACADEMIC MODULE ANDGOT A 6,5 IN READING AND 7.5 IN WRITING.I KEEP WONDERING WHAT ACTUALLYWENT WRONG.


5 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

Dominic Cole November 27, 2011 at 7:13 pm #

Wow. A strange one. How on earth did you manage to do better inacademic reading than general training reading?!?! I cant help you there. Theskills are the same but the GT passages should be quite a bit morestraightforward.

On the writing, the difference is in the letter format. I have known good candidatesgo wrong with that largely because they dont address all the parts of thequestion.

alia January 20, 2012 at 12:44 pm #

Dear Cole,,,

Thank you so much for such a golden advice .

once again many thanks

alia

Ibrahim Turay July 18, 2012 at 11:07 pm #

Hi Mr Dominic,Is the letter writing aspect meant for both general and academic IELTS candidates?with regardsIbrahim Turay.

Dominic Cole July 18, 2012 at 11:52 pm #

Hi

The letter only appears in general training.

Mohei August 8, 2012 at 5:59 pm #

Good day,


6 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

Dear Mr Dominic,

First of all I want to thank you for this tips.Im writing this comment to complaint about the page design, as I can not find a links tosimples to explain the idea of each tip, or even practices.

But anyhow thank you very much for this useful tips.Kind regards

Dominic Cole August 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm #

Fair comment. I am in fact working on the site design at the moment andat some time the posts will all neatly link together there are currently over 250lessons so this will take some time though. The idea is for the site to become acomplete online course and not just another blog. Can I suggest that you visit thefront page and look through the reading/writing/listening pages there you will findmost of the important lessons catalogued there.

Mohamed August 17, 2012 at 3:44 pm #

Hi CINDY,

I had a same experience. Unlike most people who think that GT is much more easier ,especially

in Reading I think differenly. I think that because the GT is much more tricky. You thinkthat you

understand the question well while answering wrongly. In scoring as you know there isnot

important you already know sophisticated/difficulty vaocabularies. What is important isthe right answer.

By contrast, in Academic IELTS you hardly find those questions focusing on tricking

candidates. Instead, they want to focus on vocabularies.

My suggestion is in GT we should not answer questions hastily . And always shouldknow that in

IELTS there is never very easy question.

joanne October 27, 2012 at 10:21 pm #


7 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

Hi,Im really thankful for all your valuable tips for IELTS preparation.

One quick question, do we need to write in paragraph when writing a letter? Thanks.

Rohit February 26, 2013 at 5:21 pm #

Hi Dominic,

I would like to ask you about Tip no. 6.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sometimes, I have seen on internet that people have used comma after the abovementioned sentence like given below:

I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Yours faithfully,

.. ..

Please let me know which is better and correct from IELTS point of view.

Thanks,

Rohit

Dominic Cole February 26, 2013 at 5:36 pm #

It all depends whether it is in a complete sentence and what comes next.Send me some examples and i would be happy to comment


Letter Writing Task:

Recently stay in a hotel. The heating system in the room was not working.

Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: give details of what went wrong explain what you had to do to overcome the problem at the time say what action you would like the manager to take


8 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

Dear Sir,

.

I am shocked by this terrible service. This is not what anyone expects for$600 a night! To compensate me for this inconvenience, I would like to ask afull refund of my money and offer me a free, more comfortable stay in one ofyour finer suites. If not, I am prepared to take my complaint to a higherauthority.

I look forward to hearing from you at the earliest,

Yours faithfully,

_______ _______


This is a great question I now understand what you mean.Ive just spent a fair while researching it. Like you, I have foundexamples with commas, full stops and no punctuation at all.

My first instinct, and best answer, is that you need a full stop as whatyou are writing here is a complete sentence. A very strong argumentfor this is that you need a capital letter for Yours sincerely and Yoursfaithfully and this would be entirely inappropriate with a comma beforeit.

I would add though that I have found what I would regard as goodexamples with commas. With regards to IELTS, I would say relax andthat either variant would do. I say partly because letter writingconventions (and this is part of letter writing conventions) vary aroundthe world and IELTS examiners are going to be relaxed about acceptingdifferent conventions because IELTS is such an I(international ELTS)exam. The one point you do need to get right is the level of formality ofthe way you end the letter: it would be a problem if you ended aninformal letter to a friend with Yours faithfully, for example.


Thanks Dominic!

I have scored 6.0 in Writing when I have given my exam on Feb.02, 2013 and now I am practicing a lot as I have to give the examagain and would like to score at least 7.0 in each.

Also, my weakest part is Speaking in which I scored 5.5. Can you


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suggest anything how should I improve my speaking so that I canreach at least 7.0.

Do you have any material to prepare for Speaking test?

I have read your profile on this website and found that you are afreelance teacher. Do you give any online tuition serviceoverseas so that I can prepare for the speaking part at least?


Hi Rohit

There is quite a big step from 5.5 to 7.0 in speaking and, yes, I do think that you shouldapproach a teacher. I will be teaching myself from June, but life in China doesnt makethat practical for me just yet.Friday/Saturday this week (depending on where you are in the world) I will be postingthe details of Jan a teacher based in Melbourne, Australia and she does specialisein Skype and speaking. The time zone may not be great perhaps for you but hereshoping.


Thanks Dominic! I will contact Jan.

saeed March 8, 2013 at 6:25 am #

Where can i get general trainings reading and writing practices which actuallyappeared in exams?


10 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

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Dominic Cole March 8, 2013 at 6:32 am #

The only source for this are the Cambridge exam books 1-8. Be carefulwith internet sites that give you recent questions, they may be remembered well,they may not be.

prashant pathak March 27, 2013 at 5:09 pm #

sir, i am lagging in listening section. I am not able to answer the multiplequestion as well as mapping. Besides this i use to listen a lot of stuff of English.thanks.

Dominic Cole March 28, 2013 at 9:26 am #

Another listening coming today with a map.


11 of 13 01.03.2014 22:55

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10 Tips on Writing IELTS LettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond